Moeen Ali says Brendon McCullum is “definitely the right person” to lead England’s Test team forward but insists “tweaks” are needed following their disappointing Ashes tour.
England lost 4-1 in Australia as they performed well below expectations on a tour that Moeen believes represented a “golden opportunity” to claim a first away Ashes win since 2010-11.
The performance has raised questions over the future of McCullum, who leads England across all three international formats and will take his T20 side to a World Cup next month.
Moeen, who made 68 Test appearances for England, the last of which came under McCullum in 2023, suggested the tourists were missing a player in the style of his former team-mate Jonny Bairstow, who was dropped from the side in 2024.
Moeen told Sky Sports News: “I definitely think he (McCullum) is the right guy and I just think there needs to be some sort of refining bits that need to probably change.
“You’ve got to soak up pressure. I know the guys talk about it, but when it’s time to soak up pressure, you’ve got to be able to do that and adapt to stations and wickets.
England head coach Brendon McCullum has come under pressure following his side’s Ashes defeat
“I think one of the best players when it comes to ‘Bazball’ was someone like Jonny Bairstow, who had the technique to defend and fight for wicket and for his life, and then when he needed to put the foot down, he would also do that as well.
“I think that’s what’s missing. Obviously the guys do like to play aggressively and play shots, but there has to be times when it’s tough and it’s Test cricket and you’ve got to put your body on the line. Things like that I think were missing.
“I do think Baz is definitely the right person. There just have to be a few tweaks here and there, which I’m sure everybody knows about and he knows about.
“But since he’s been there we’ve played some amazing cricket and we’ve won a lot more games than we did previously before that. Just hopefully over the next two or three years, there’ll be some change in mindset as well.”
‘Drinking culture only highlighted because we lost’
England also faced allegations of having a drinking culture after it emerged during the Ashes that white-ball captain Harry Brook had been involved in a late-night altercation with a nightclub bouncer on the preceding tour of New Zealand.
Moeen says the issue has only been highlighted because of England’s underwhelming performance on the field.
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Harry Brook admits he’s lucky to still be England’s white-ball captain after an altercation with a nightclub bouncer the night before a match and adds that supporters have every right to be annoyed with his behaviour
“There’s a lot of talk about the drinking culture but you’ve got to define drinking culture,” he said. “It’s only been highlighted because we’ve lost, otherwise I don’t think it would have been highlighted at all.
“It’s one of those things. If you’re playing well and you’re winning, then you can kind of do and say what you want a lot of the time. But when you’re losing, everything is highlighted and unfortunately, these things got highlighted.
“I think there’ll definitely be some changes to the side. Maybe players did get a bit comfortable. But there are always changes after a bad loss like that. I’m looking forward to what the future holds for the Test side, in particular.”
‘England missed a golden opportunity’
England’s Ashes defeat, which was confirmed as they lost each of the first three Tests, was made more disappointing by the fact Australia were missing key players.
Captain Pat Cummins played in only the third Test, fellow star fast-bowler Josh Hazelwood missed the entire series, and spinner Nathan Lyon was injured during the third Test.
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Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain dissect England’s crushing 4-1 Ashes loss to Australia
“It was a tough watch,” Moeen said. “I thought we’d do a lot better than we actually did.
“Australia away is difficult anyway, but I think it was a golden opportunity to go there and win, especially with Hazelwood and Cummins missing most of the series, and Lyon only playing a couple of games. It was a huge opportunity for us.
“I don’t think we batted well, obviously. And I think we bowled not great either. Australia won all the big moments.
“The difference I think was that we were a lot looser than them with the batting. I think they also struggled with the bat generally apart from a couple of guys. On those tough wickets, in particular for the first couple of games, it was the way we were getting out compared to them – that was really the difference.”
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